Finally, Shimla makes it to smart-city list right after MC Polls

SHIMLA- Shimla has made it into the list of cities to be develop as smart cities. The Central government today announced another list of 30 cities taking the total cities picked up to 90 under Smart City Mission launched on June 25, 2015. It happened right after the polls for the Shimla Municipal Corporation were held on June 16 in which Bhartiya Janata Party has registered a neat victory for the first time in last three decades.

Announcing the new batch of smart cities at a National Workshop on Urban Transformation here today, Minister of Urban Development and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation M.Venkaiah Naidu said that 45 cities contested for 40 available smart city slots but only 30 were selected to ensure feasible and workable plans that match the aspirations of the citizens.

The 30 cities announced today proposed a total investment of Rs.57,393 cr under respective smart city plans. This includes Rs.46,879 cr for ensuring core infrastructure in the areas identified by citizens for area based development and Rs.10,514 cr for technology based solutions for improving governance , service delivery and utilization of infrastructure. With this the total investment approved under the smart city plans of 90 cities has gone up to Rs.1,91,155 cr.

Shimla: The former Superintendent of Shimla Police, D.W. Negi, finally joined eight other police officials including the ex-Inspector General, Southern Range, Zahur H. Zaidi, and the ex-Deputy Superintendent, Theog, at the Model Central Jail, Kanda.

The Court of Judicial Magistrate Ranjeet Singh Thakur on November 21, sent Negi in a judicial custody till November 23. He will be produced in the court along with eight other accused on the same date.

As per the report, the Central Bureau of Investigation sought his remand for five more days, which was denied by the court.

The CBI had arrested Negi on November 16 in case relating to the custodial killing of a Nepalese laborer, who was arrested by State Police SIT in relation to the rape and murder of a minor and was on remand till November 21.

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly abducted, gangraped, and murdered savagely in the Halaila woods of the Kotkhai region in Shimla district. Her naked dead body was found in the woods on July 6, 2017.

The HP Police SIT claimed a breakthrough on July 13 after arresting six accused including the deceased Suraj. Suraj was killed at the Kotkhai Police station under mysterious circumstances.

On August 29, the CBI arrested eight police officials for the alleged killing of the accused. Negi was arrested for forging FIR in custodial killing of Suraj. As per this FIR, local police had framed a co-accused Raju for he killing of Suraj.

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Candidates in Shimla (U) served notices for defacing public property

He removed the promotional material along with his team. He said the political parties will have to pay the expenditure made by the district administration on removal of the posters/flyers/banners.

Shimla: With the elections come usual visual pollution and defacing of the public property because the political parties or the candidates are ignorant and possess little or no respect towards the rules. Neither they care about maintaining remaining beauty of Himachal’s towns.

As an appreciable step, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Shimal (Urban) Ajit Bhardwaj on Wednesday issued a notice to candidates of various parties who are defacing the public property in the city by pasting their posters, flyers, banners etc.

Shimla: The Returning officer of the Theog Constituency has rejected the nomination filed by the veteran Congress leader Vidya Stokes (89) on the last date. Now, she won’t be able to fight as an independent candidate either.

The set-back came following an intense drama over the Theog seat. Not only Congress faced distress in one section of party workers, but also exposed the party’s internal politics and miscommunication.

Here is what happened

A day before the last date for the filing of nomination, the list of final candidates included the name of Deepak Rathore as the ticket-holder from Theog, while the Chief Minister were seen congratulating Mr. Khachi .

As per the political critics and experts, Stokes had vacated the seat for the Chief Minster who had sacrificed Shimla-rural constituency to introduce his son. However, after Virbhadra Singh moved to Arki, Stokes expressed her right to nominate a candidate of her choice, which was Vijaypal Khachi, son of late Congress leader JBL Khachi,

However, the high-command and state committee gave the ticket to Deepak Rathore, who even filed the nomination.

At the same time, Virbhadra Singh tweeted a photo in which he was congratulating Khachi for securing a ticket. The tweet was later deleted, however.

Stokes had even announced her retirement but on the last date, she files her nomination as a Candidate representing Congress party. It was speculated that Rathore would contest as an independent candidate as Stokes would take back the charge as the official candidate from Theog.

Congress was left red-faced after her nomination was rejected today. As per the rule there could be only one official claimant for the party symbol. Moreover, she had failed to produce 10 proposers, as mentioned in the RO handbook. Also, Rathore had filed the nomination with party authority letter first.

As per critics, it is a blunder that could affect the results because Stokes had won past three elections successively.

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